DOL: Georgia’s job market continues to deteriorate

Unemployed Georgians who abandoned the job hunt last month reduced the state’s unemployment rate slightly in July, compared to June, the Georgia Department of Labor reported this morning.

The state’s jobless rate declined slightly to 9.9 percent in July, down from a revised 10 percent in June. Georgia’s July rate again exceeded the national rate, which stood at 9.5 percent. It’s the 34th consecutive month Georgia has posted a higher unemployment rate than the national figure, the DOL said.

“Georgia’s job market continued to deteriorate for the second consecutive month,” state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said in a news release. “Although the unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged, a growing number of discouraged workers dropped out of the workforce. For the second consecutive month, the number of jobs in our state declined, new layoffs increased, and long-term unemployment continued to rise.”

The slight dip in the unemployment rate was primarily the result of the state’s labor force shrinking by 21,043 from June to July, as long-term unemployed workers became discouraged and gave up their job search, according to the DOL. Coupled with the increase of 19,026 discouraged workers in June, Georgia’s labor force has deteriorated by more than 40,000 during the past two months. This is the first time since 2001 that Georgia has experienced significant reductions in the labor force for two consecutive months.

The number of payroll jobs in July decreased 21,600, from 3,827,200 in June to 3,805,600.

In July, there were 230,100 long-term unemployed Georgians (those who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer). The long-term unemployed now account for nearly half of the 462,372 jobless workers in Georgia.